Al Gore: Government shutdown ‘political terrorism’

Former Vice President Al Gore took Republicans to task Friday for risking a government shutdown, calling it “political terrorism.”

“I think the only phrase that describes it is political terrorism. ‘Nice global economy you got there, be a shame if we had to destroy it. We have a list of demands. If you don’t meet them all by our deadline, we’ll blow up the global economy,’” Gore said Friday at the Brookings Institution.

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Gore had a question for those engaging in the “despicable and dishonorable threat” to shut down government over Obamacare.

“How dare you?”

In a keynote address peppered with his own memories from his time in Washington, D.C., Gore lamented changes in politics since and had a warning for anyone who is considering letting government funding run out or letting the U.S. default.

“Here’s what those who are threatening the shut down and default should understand. In situations like this, the president of our country has … an inherent advantage in speaking for the whole country,” Gore said, saying the president would win at the end. “But it’s not a game. … Don’t put our economy through this.”

Gore was speaking at the kickoff of Brookings Institution’s Center for Effective Government Management. He said he had high hopes that the institute could help turn the tide in what he sees as a disturbing change in government.

“American democracy has been hacked,” Gore said. “Its operating system has been taken over by special interests by using big money and lobbyists and taking advantage of a very sick political culture that has grown worse very rapidly in the last couple of decades.”

Citing his experience watching his father in Congress, his own time there and his time in the White House, Gore said he has watched as democracy has changed “over six decades.”

“Most of our elected forces now are forced by their system to spend five hours a day on the telephone raising money or going to cocktail parties and events to raise money from special interests. And it’s a kabuki routine that’s … spiraled downward, the crassness with which the quids pro quo at the heart of the equation are made openly visible,” Gore said.

Gore used that train of thought to take an apparent dig at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has been leading the charge to include an Obamacare defunding provision in the government funding bill and is accused by both sides of the aisle of moving toward a government shutdown. Gore said the change in government has kept some excellent people out of politics, and done the opposite for others.

“Many men and women who I wish were in politics aren’t in politics now, why would they be? And some who I wish were not in politics, speaking for long stretches of time,” Gore said, leaving the end up to the laughing crowd.